In recent years, decreasing power requirements and increased performance of microprocessors has lead to increased use of portable data processors such as a laptop computers, notebook computers or personal data assistants (PDAs). Portable data processors provide much, if not all, of the functionality of the older, immobile desktop computers but add portability as a feature. In fact, advances in display technology have made high resolution, low power, color or monochrome displays commonplace on portable computers which has furthered the replacement of desktop systems with portable systems. As portable data processors have taken the place of many desktop computers they have changed the perception of computers from a back room appliance used by data processors to an interactive tool accessible to anyone.
Even though portable data processors were put to new and different uses by new and different users, the same user interfaces which were used in stationary desktop computing were generally brought to portable data processors. The stationary desktop computer's user interface paradigm involved providing a general purpose operating system which allowed for access to any application that was available from the processor. Thus, desktop units have a very generic and abstract user interface which will work in all situations for all types of applications.
At the same time that technological advances in the computer industry brought ever increasing mobility to computers, demand for increased productivity among the workforce has brought more employees in contact with computers. This contact may be in the form of a portable computer such as a notebook computer or it may be in the form of a more customized processing application such as a PDA. As described above, despite the proliferation of mobile computing among an ever less computer trained user pool, the user interface for portable data processors has generally remained the generic desktop interface. The generic, multi-purpose nature of these user interfaces for portable data processors assumes some level of familiarity and experience with computers which is less and less present among mobile computer users. Thus, more people with less computer training are required to operate computers with a more generic, abstract and intimidating user interface. Furthermore, even if training is available, quite often these users are in high turn-over positions which presents efficiency and productivity difficulties if extensive training is required before a new user can become productive. Also, in many instances, this disparity between the experience and training level of the user and the capabilities of the portable data processor naturally leads to intimidation and an unwillingness to take full advantage of the capabilities of the portable data processor. Thus, there is a need for improvements in user interfaces of portable data processor devices to allow greater access to portable data processors by users of all types of experience and training levels.